


The Road of Sacrifice

by Franavu



Series: Warhammer headcanons [1]
Category: Highlander - All Media Types, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-12 05:31:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2097468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Franavu/pseuds/Franavu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An end and a new beginning in the 41st millennnium. Good things may still happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Road of Sacrifice

These are the waning days of the 41st millennium. Humanity is besieged from all sides. From the reaches beyond the known galaxy, Tyranid fleets travel inexorably onwards. Chaos streams from the Eye of Terror in a Black Crusade. In the darkness ancient things are waking. And the Golden Throne, which has kept the God-Emperor of Mankind alive for ten thousand years, is failing, the knowledge on how to repair it lost in the mists of time.

It is in this time that a ship of the Imperial Navy, an Imperial Guard regiment aboard, falls out of the Warp at the wrong, or perhaps the right place. The engines are broken and will take up to a month to repair, but they have found themselves in a system previously unknown to the Imperium, signs of human habitation on the single life-bearing planet.

It is their duty to bring the Imperial Truth to the planet, by hook or by crook, and so an envoy and escort are sent down. The locals do not understand their Low Gothic, but they bring the delegation to their king. He is a youth, with an angelic face, blue eyes and a cloud of reddish curls. He seems bemused by them, but is capable of understanding Low Gothic, although his speech is heavily accented and slow.

When they tell the young king about the God-Emperor and show him an icon of their lord, he stares at the picture, and then laughs and laughs. Their hands go to their weapons at this blasphemy, but they do not pull them, hoping they can still bring the truth to this planet peacefully.

When the boy finally stops laughing, he apologises and tells them his planet will join the Imperium, but that one thing must first be done in the tradition of his people. A new king can only be crowned after the old one is dead at his feet, head removed from the body. Therefore he asks for this to be done at the foot of the Golden Throne on Holy Terra, as is the proper way to him.

It is an odd and possibly heretical request, but it would certainly be easier and cheaper than a planetary campaign. The request is faithfully relayed back to Terra and after an unusually short wait on the bureaucracy, it is granted six months later, possibly a speed record for the Administratum.

A ship is sent to take the boy-king to Holy Terra. After the journey through the Warp, he is led to the foot of the Golden Throne, alone but for his executioner. The axe falls...The immense lightning storm ends, and with a cheerful, "wakey, wakey, old man" still ringing in his ears Methos opens his eyes, physically whole for the first time in ten millennia. He closes his eyes again briefly, allowing himself to remember the young man he knew so long ago. Then he opens his eyes again and the God-Emperor of Mankind stands to leave the room which has been his prison for so long. He has work to do.


End file.
